Nobel Price
by Gaspari
Summary: They are in Stockholm to recieve the price. Josh meets Donna again. Are there still sparks? Well, what do you think... would I be writing if there weren't? R&R!


Disclaimer: I don't own them, though I wish I did… Don't we all.

Spoilers: It's post-Bartletadministration.

Summary: This is when Jed Bartlet wins the Nobel Peace Price and goes to Stockholm with some from his former staff. A year after the end of his last term. Yes, I know the Peace Price is given in Norway, but it was more fun this way… And yes, I do appear in the story myself, as a future me, the Nobel attaché. Josh meets Donna.

Caution: I would just like to announce that I'm not a native English-speaker, I speak Swedish at home. So if the mistakes are to big, please close your eyes and move on to the next part.

* * *

The plane was slowly descending from the clear Nordic sky. It bumped slightly as it touched the ground of Arlanda Airport, Sweden. Some two hundred people rose when the seatbelt sign was turned off and the Captain and his crew thanked for the flight. Josh lingered for a few seconds in his seat. He had so wanted her to be there. CJ looked at him.

"C'mon grumpy. You haven't been a very interesting conversation during these miles, you know. You should cheer up. We're in Stockholm, a beautiful pearl in the dramatic landscapes of Sweden! And on top of everything we're receiving a Nobel Price! Well, not so much we, as Dr Bartlet, but still. You can't be all down when you're going to attend to the Nobel Ball."

"Yes, I'm sorry, I shall be oh so very happy!" he said, trying to look cheerful.

CJ glanced at him looking rather unconvinced.

"I promise! I promise I shall screw up just the regular amount of times now that we are all assembled again!"

CJ still didn't look truly convinced, but decided to trust his answer. She knew what was making him so gloomy. When the former President had been awarded the Nobel Peace Price a year after he left the White House, certain members of his staff had been invited with him to Stockholm. Josh and CJ had been among the invited, and so had Donna, who nobody of them had seen since she'd left them. CJ knew Josh was covering up his disappointment over the fact that she never showed up at the airport, even though she had told Jed she would.

Josh gathered his thought and his belongings and slowly made his way out of the airplane. He shook hands with a nervous and giggly stewardess. He was feeling tired and a little sad. His heart had jumped when he'd heard that Donna had been invited to the trip. And he had had trouble containing his joy when he'd heard that she'd accepted. He hadn't actually seen her since she left. Yes, they had spoken on the phone a few times, but it had always been stiff. Oh how he had missed her. Their banter, her dry sense of humor, how she walked with those short, quick step right behind him. He missed the entire Donna. Her wonderful person. Her wonderful touch. How she made his body and mind tingle. He had so been looking forward to meeting her again. He wanted to explain so much. But she hadn't been there. Well, that's life. Try now to look at least a little happy in front of the Bartlets. He stretched and smiled as he met Abbeys eyes.

They had all stopped and were waiting for someone to show them where to go. A small crowd had gathered around them, many recognized the former President. Jed and his family had turned to face Josh, CJ and Toby.

"Well, you all know that you are here instead of my grandchildren. But don't think that I like you more than them. I don't." Jed smiled and looked at them all. "No, honestly. You all meant a lot to me during our time together. And you have your part in this award. It will be fun here in Sweden. I hear that Swedes are not so restricted as they look, so be careful…!" he said with a smile. "Let us all enjoy ourselves and the lovely company of the next. If we ever get away from this airport… Where are they? I hope they don't expect us to walk from here to Stockholm. If I remember it right, it was quite far."

Josh looked around and then spotted a woman trying to get through the crowd with a large sign in her hand.

"I am so very sorry. I didn't expect all these people! I'm Stina, from the State Department; I'm the Nobel attaché and going to be your guide here during this week. So, first I'll show you to the car that is waiting."

The Nobel Attaché showed them to two diplomatic cars standing outside the airport's main terminal. A few people were waiving and sheering them on. Stina explained that most Swedes knew who won the Nobel Price, and this year was no exception. There had been quite a debate when the award had been announced. There had been talks about the Swedish academy, if they should make political preferences. But there were always discussions, and President Bartlet had been admired in Sweden, both as a President and as a person.

"You know," she said. "For a Swede you opinions are almost to the right of our right-hand party. The Social Democrats have been ruling here almost unthreatened for many years. We only have one party to the right of you Democratic Party, and that's a very small one, a Christian one, and it's dying out. That is, if you don't count the small splinters of racists parties. I think we have about seven parties in our congress. And with a new on the way, called the Feminist Party."

"I knew about this," Jed nodded. "Not about the new party though. Isn't it so that half of your cabinet secretaries are women?"

"Yes, and even more than half sometimes."

Jed looked at the others. "We have a lot to learn there."

"And Sweden has a lot to learn from your country when it comes to action and major national crises. The Swedish government doesn't do that well in emergency situations. The chain of command is to long."

"Maybe. I heard that there were problems when that horrible tsunami hit Thailand."

Stina nodded. "It wasn't easy working at the state department in those days. But I'm boring you with a depressing topic. Here are the cars that are going to take you to the Grand Hotel."

"Thank you. But this is not boring; I'll find time to talk to you again."

The Bartlets rode in one car, and the others in car number two. Josh was still feeling sad and leaned his head against the window. Trees were made into a blur outside. Every now and then the endless forest was interrupted by a small lake or a field.

"I thought there was going to be one more. Someone called Donna?" said Stina

Toby cleared his throat waiting for Josh to answer. But he didn't, he continued staring out the window, noticing how small the fields were, compared to the ones in the States. When nobody answered and the silence just got longer, CJ felt that she had to say something.

"She couldn't make it."

Josh felt glad that the Swedish woman didn't press the matter; she could probably feel that the subject was a little tense. He had to stop acting like this. He actually didn't care that much about it anyway. Really! He didn't care that he wasn't going to hear her voice again, wasn't going to smell her perfume again, wasn't going to feel her skin in a casual. Really! This kind of thinking wasn't making anything any better, on the contrary he was actually feeling worse for every second that passed. He tried to listen to what the others were saying. Stina was handing them a few papers. They were their schedule for the next couple of days. He had been booked to do a TV interview this afternoon, a few hours from now.

"Stockholm is not a big city, at least not compared to what you're used to. It won't take you long to get to the TV station. It's SVT doing the interview, they are a company owned by the taxpayers, with no commercial. It's a minor interview; they want something for their evening news. There is a bigger one booked later in the week; they do many special programs about the award winners. Some of Dr Bartlet's lectures and debates with the other winners are broadcasted."

The Grand Hotel in Stockholm was located a hundred meters from the Royal Palace. Only a small channel of the lake Mälaren separated the two buildings. The water is prominent in the city, and right outside the hotel tourists were waiting for a boat ride and locals were fishing. Yes, the water is so clean you can actually aet the fish you capture there. And if you walk another hundred meters you come to the Swedish government's building, Rosenbad. It's not nearly as grand as the White House, but is serves its purpose. The Royal family doesn't actually live in the city palace, they live in a castle a little outside Stockholm, and that's were many of the boats were heading.

A large crowd was waiting outside the hotel as they arrived. There were Swedish reporters there, but also American ones. They all gathered around Jed as he got out of his car. Stina hurried to help him find his way in. Josh, CJ and Toby went inside. A man showed them to their suites. Josh walked into his and threw his coat on the bed. He looked outside the window. There, across the water lay the palace. A huge building, built as a square with hundreds of windows. He could see the entrances from here, even the guards standing outside their little huts.

"Did you know that the flag is up when the royal family is home?"

Josh jumped around. Mrs. Bartlet was standing there.

"Oh you scared me, Mrs. Bartlet."

"It's time you start calling me Abbey soon. I came to talk to you."

"About what, Mrs… Abbey?"

"About you. Why haven't you called or visited Donna? And don't give me that she's-only-my-assistant-crap. It's not true. I could see how disappointed you were, we all could."

"Well… I, you know, I didn't she she'd want me to. After all, she did leave."

"Off course she wanted to see you; don't you know how much she cared for you? How much you cared for her…?"

"I don't know about that." Josh squirmed. "I did well without her…-"

Josh cut off when Abbey took a few long steps and suddenly was right in front of him. "Mr., be careful, your tongue could turn black if you lie like that," she said in a low voice. "And don't lie to yourself. It won't do you no good."

Suddenly she was by the door again, she turned and gave him a quick smile. "Don't give up just yet, maybe she'll come anyway…" And she was gone. He could hear the soft thud of her shoes against the carpet.

What was that all about? Josh threw himself on the bed and tried very hard not to think about what she'd said. Donna cared? And what about him? No, he wouldn't go there again. There was no use in thinking like that. Donna was gone, out of his life, and he didn't miss her. At least not very much. Well, okay, okay, at least not so mush that he couldn't sleep. Anymore. He'd gotten used to the feeling that a part of him was missing, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Josh was glad he was disturbed in his black thoughts by Stina who told him that a cab was waiting to take him to the TV studio.

The interview was short and didn't take much time. The man interviewing him was nervous, but he managed to do it without any major mistakes. He was just about to leave the studio when a tall and good looking woman approached him. She had a sly smile on her lips and swayed her hips just enough for him to notice it, but not so much that it looked indecent. She reached out her hand and took his in a firmly grip. She looked him deep in his eyes.

"Hi," she said. "I'm Lena and work at the Evening News. I'm doing a larger interview with you later in the week."

Ah, he knew what this was about. She was one of them who loved power and would probably do almost anything to be close to a powerful politician, especially one close to a former President. And by close he didn't mean talking feelings in the middle of the night. He had met thousands of people like this all over the world. Donna had saved him from them on countless occasions, he remembered one time when she actually played his lover to scare one away. That had been fun, she'd been all clingy and Josh had had troubles stopping himself from really play that game to the end that time…

The woman was still looking at him, he could see a glimpse of hope and desperation in her eyes. Why not? Couldn't he be allowed to try to forget Donna just one night? He hadn't looked at another woman for ages, let alone slept with one. Maybe he should let his body lead the way, only for tonight. God knows it wanted it. But even as he stepped closer to the woman, he could feel his mind screaming and raging. His heart was shouting at the top of its voice and his body didn't respond at all like it should.

Suddenly he saw a flash of blond hair at the corner of his eye. Someone had stopped just outside his field of vision. The person gasped and then turned around and disappeared round a corner. A thought cried out through the haze in Josh's head. His heart skipped a beat and the air escaped his lungs. And then it dawned to him what he must look like, standing so close to this woman, looking at her like men look at women they want for just the night. He managed to move his frozen limbs and spun around and then whipped them into running after the person.

"Donna!!" he screamed.

more chapters to come...


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